Flickr is one of those great sites of the past which was ignored for way too long. As Yahoo’s SVP Adam Caham puts it: “Flickr had become about words, little images, blue links. It was not about the photo anymore.” No Yahoo is hoping to finally rejuvenate the aging photo site with a brilliant new user interface and a massive amount of storage for users.

The boring old white page with tiny images has now been replaced with a image rich interface which is much more in sync with our current broadband age. There is extensive sharing options also built in – and of course it includes Yahoo’s new darling, Tumblr (which it bought for a cool $1,1 Bil).

The biggest way to get people back to Flickr is of course with online storage. (more…)

Being connected has become such a part of our daily routine that it is unheard of to not check email, send a social network update, or edit a document in the cloud wherever we find ourselves. And given the increase in Wi-Fi hotspots, one could live ‘always on’ without too much effort.

“Companies see improvements in productivity when employees are able to work remotely and access the corporate network while travelling,” says Mike van Lier, Business Leader for IT Solutions at Samsung Electronics South Africa. “These employees can provide live feedback from the field to ensure that data is always relevant and all internal stakeholders know exactly what the latest developments are. What’s more, mobile data rates have become more competitive to provide business users and consumers with affordable options when it comes to the connected experience.” (more…)

Thanks to NATIVE’s new Mxit app, bookly, author Fiona Snyckers can now launch her book to an audience of 7.3 million monthly active users and do it three weeks before the real-world launch in bookstores.

bookly is the most sophisticated e-reader app available on the Mxit platform.  NATIVE began developing the app in early 2013, and was eager to bring suitable partners on board as quickly as possible. Publishers Random House Struik and Modjaji Books stepped up as partners creating an appropriate focus on serialised South African novels.

(more…)

Google’s messaging systems have quickly become a mess – with the launch of Google Chat a decade ago they had a pretty decent headstart. But they quickly branched out into different channels with the launch of Google Voice, and later the Hangouts feature in Google+.

Google Talk was luckily built on the Jabber standard until now, meaning that you could quite easily integrate it with many different clients across many platforms. But Google never launched an official Google Chat client outside Android – until now. The new Google Hangouts app is meant to bring Talk, Hangouts video chat and Google Voice together into one product.

(more…)

Universal access to the internet in South Africa is no longer being held back by high prices or a lack of education, but by government and regulatory inefficiency. Smartphones and mobile computing devices are getting cheaper and broadband far more affordable. But the spectrum needed to deliver high-speed bandwidth is still clogged up by the government’s frustrating delay in switching TV broadcasts from analogue to more efficient digital signals, says Mark Taylor, CEO for Nashua Mobile.

“We are at a juncture where technology developments have outpaced our regulations. The freeing up of spectrum through the digitisation of TV signals is lagging behind, and has serious implications for our operators remaining on the forefront of offering the latest technologies to South Africa.” Network operators are introducing the latest LTE wireless technology for high-speed, high-capacity data, but they cannot set up national LTE networks because spectrum is not available. “It’s critical that we see the delivery of additional spectrum quickly to remain globally competitive, otherwise South Africa will fall further behind in the broadband divide,” Taylor warns. “Universal access to broadband is starting to border on a human right. We can’t deliver that because TV channels are still using the spectrum, so digital migration must be finalised.” (more…)

Nokia today introduced the Nokia Lumia 925, a new interpretation of its award-winning flagship, the Nokia Lumia 920 (one of our favourite phones of 2012). The Nokia Lumia 925 introduces a metal design and showcases the latest PureView camera innovation, new features and third party applications coming to the Nokia Lumia range.

The Nokia Lumia 925 includes the most advanced lens technology and next generation imaging software to capture clearer, sharper pictures and video, including the best low light images. The Nokia Lumia 925 also introduces the new Nokia Smart Camera mode, coming as an update to all Lumia Windows Phone 8 smartphones. Nokia Smart Camera offers an easy way to capture ten images at once and edit the pictures with options like Best Shot, Action Shot, and Motion Focus for creating better images. (more…)

Nokia keeps on pushing the benefits of its Pureview cameras in its flagship phones – but this time they extended the incredible low light technology to video as well. Their new Lumia 928 phone is not only going to sport a new aluminium casing, it will clearly have an even better camera as well.

(more…)

In these modern times it seems the easiest way to offend people is to mock their choice of phone. The biggest war is of course between Android and iPhone users – for every possible argument, there is a counterargument from the other camp. Microsoft decided to mock this ridiculous “war” with their new Lumia ad, which is set at a wedding.

Microsoft is showing off Nokia’s flagship phone, the Lumia 920. The Lumia 920 is arguably the current best Windows Phone device. With the current smartphone market belonging to Apple and Samsung, Nokia has been having a tough time in the last few years. A few years back they were by far biggest cellphone maker in the world, and had wonderful profits. These days those profits have dried up, but their latest Lumia phones do seem be having a positive effect. The Lumia range has also steadily moved into more entry level phone, with pretty great offerings in the form of the Lumia 620 and 520.

Tell us what you think of Microsoft’s latest ad: (more…)